Juan Bautista Varela de Vega

Category: Musician and writer
Birth Date: 21st December 1933
Birth Place: Lugo
 Curriculum

He began to study Music (Piano and Harmony) with Isabel Fernández Barreiro, Xoán Montes? favourite pupil. Then he studied Counterpoint, Fugue, Orchestration, Composition, Orchestra Conductorship and Musical History, Ethnography and Organography. He gave lectures on Music, especially on Musical Historiography. Since 1978, he has been a music critic and has written articles in several newspapers and magazines with over a thousand published works. Together with the musicologist Joaquín Díaz, he created the magazine 'Revista de Folklore' in 1980 with a section about Musical Organography.

 Work & Activities

He collaborated in Gran Enciclopedia Gallega with about fifty articles, Diccionario de Música Española e Hispanoamericana with more than a hundred articles and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the first big musical dictionary in the world. He wrote Juan Montes un músico gallego. Estudio biográfico, a biography of the famous musician from Lugo, which was prologued by the eminent musicologist José López-Calo. He also published Xoan Montes, o músico de Lugo (in Galician language), El músico Juan Montes y los poetas gallegos and Músicos de Valladolid. Antología biográfica (three volumes: 1st volume: 14th-18th centuries; 2nd volume: 19th century; 3rd volume: 20th century). The book Encuentros con la música... desde mi mesa is a collection of many of his musical articles. He participated in many national and international conferences.

 Other Interesting Aspects

He got several distinctions and prizes such as the Merit Diploma, the Silver Medal and the Gold Lyre awarded by the Lyrical Association 'Amigos de la Zarzuela' of Valladolid. He took a doctor's degree in Musicology and Law and a degree in Sociology. He is a member of the International Association of Researchers and the Academy of Fine Arts of Valladolid.